Sparkle Plenty
First Appearance - June 6th, 1947 Sparkle Plenty Tracy first appeared as the baby of two homely-looking parents (B.O. Plenty and Gravel Gertie) who surprised the world with her beautiful appearance. Immediately the world fell in love with her. Her picture made the cover of numerous magazines, including the new publication "Glance". At the age of two, Sparkle was already talking and doing chores at her house at Sunny Dell Acres. A soda company decided to take advantage of Sparkle's fame and named their product after her without permission. B.O. and Gertie resolved that problem and started selling the officially licensed product. Tess Tracy who was now the head of a professional photography studio conviced client Talcum Freely (a baby clothing designer) to have Sparkle be the child for the campaign. Freely had a hard time with Gertie and B.O., especially when he wanted to cut off her long flowing beautiful hair so that the dress would show. Freely of course didn't take this action but wanted nothing to do with the parents. Freely was found murdered in his mansion and B.O. fled fearing that he would be the prime suspect (the murder was actually committed by Sketch Paree, a rival clothing designer). Gertie had been teaching Sparkle how to play the mandolin and how to sing, and B.O. entered her in a talent competition on TV. Sparkle was once again a major hit. After she met with success, Dick Tracy recommended that his old friend, actor Vitamin Flintheart become Sparkle's agent, a capacity in which he still functions. Sparkle would gain a new little sister in the abandoned daughter of criminal Odds Zonn. Susie was taken in by the Plentys and renamed Little Wings (for her wing-like hairstyle). Sparkle noticed that Wingy glowed in the dark and thought that she was a real angel, but this was actually just a side effect of her exposure to toxic materials. When Tess Trueheart Tracy gave birth to daughter Bonnie Braids, Sparkle gained a new friend and Bonnie gained a big sister figure. When the Tracys and the Plentys took a vacation to the lake in the North Woods, Tracy took Bonnie and Sparkle on a motor boat ride when all of a sudden, Tracy was shot and fell over the side of the boat. Sparkle had to take control of the boat but had a hard time steering, being that she was still only a little kid. During her adolescence, Sparkle gained quite a lot of weight (known as her "fat" period). During this time she was merely a background character. She later lost it and returned to her thin self. Sparkle's cousin Vera Alldid fell in love with her while whe was still a teenager and the two were married. Her father did not approve of the marriage and it caused a rift between them. As time passed, Vera grew self-absorbed and distant because of his success as a cartoonist. He began to crave money and other woman. Vera fled to Mexico to file for divorce, which devastated poor Sparkle. Lizz, who was now good friends with Sparkle tried her best to console her. B.O. disapproved of divorce even more than he did the marriage, and he told her she couldn't move back home, effectively disowning her. Lizz let Sparkle stay with her during this time. While this was happening, Dick Tracy's first major enemy Big Boy Caprice had put out a Million Dollar Open Contract on Tracy's life. Big Boy found a man who would be willing to collect on his contract and dodge the Apparatus's counter contract. That man was Johnny Snow aka The Iceman. Sparkle, still having difficulty bouncing back from her divorce, accompanied Lizz and her boyfriend and fellow officer Groovy Grove to a disco where Sparkle met a disguised Iceman (calling himself Johnny Winter) and they developed a relationship. Snow was using Sparkle to have an excuse to spy on Tracy's home. At the time, Spakle was working as Dick Tracy's maid while Tess and Honey were in California under Vitamin's protection. Snow came calling on Sparkle one night while she was at Tracy's. He chloroformed her and tied her up in a closet. Sparkle managed to wake up and get out of the loosely-tied ropes. She turned on the light and saw Johnny and Tracy pointing guns at each other about to shoot it out. Sparkle tried to get Johnny to stop but he jumped out the window behind him. Tracy shot him, mortally wounding him. As Snow was rushed to the hospital, Sparkle insisted on riding in the ambulance with him. After giving up what he knew about the various murder plots, Johnny begged to see Sparkle. With his last dying breath, Johnny begged Sparkle to forgive him. Sparkle knew that he loved her for the fact that he could have shot her or used her as a hostage but didn't. After Johnny was buried, Sparkle asked B.O. if she could come home, B.O. swallowed his pride and tearfully welcomed his beloved daughter back. A little while after that, Sparkle was nearly killed by a man named Pushy Pointer. For a while, Sparkle was in a coma and Junior was at her side the whole time. Sparkle managed to pull through and Pushy was arrested while in his own hospital bed. Later that year, Junior and Sparkle were married, with all their friends and family present including Bonnie who flew in from Washington state and a grown up Wingy. Also in attendance were three of Tracy's reformed enemies; Influence, the Mole and Pearshape. Unknown to anyone, Angeltop Jones, daughter of Flattop, planted a bomb in the church basement that was due to go off during the ceremony. Her boyfriend, the Brow's Son freed Lizz whom Angeltop had kidnapped a few weeks prior so that she could warn everyone. She arrived just as Junior and Sparkle cut the wedding cake. The church was evacuated and the bomb was defused with Angeltop subsequently in custody. Sparkle quickly adjusted to married life and adopted Honey Moon as her own daughter. When friends of Junior's moved in next door (the Wheelers), Sparkle was concerned about their oldest son having a criminal record and had misgivings about Honey and her new friends starting their own Crimestoppers Club (just like what Junior started when he was Honey's age). Sparkle had her own line of designer jeans and was the spokesmodel, with Vitamin Flintheart once again as her agent. Sparkle was dissatisfied with the nature of the commercial after the final cut, claiming that it made her look one dimensional. It was later discovered that there was a ring of counterfeters selling imitation jeans, and Sparkle was instrumental in helping to close in on the organization. In the late 80's Sparkle gave birth to a little girl who looked just like Sparkle did when she was a baby (Sparkle Plenty Jr.). Little Sparkle was kidnapped but was safely returned. She recently re-encountered her first husband and rebuffed him. Known Relatives *B.O. Plenty (father) *Gertrude "Gravel Gertie" Plenty (mother) *"Wingy" aka Susie Zonn (adoptive sister) *Vera Alldid (cousin/first husband; divorced) *Junior Tracy (husband) *Honey Tracy (adoptive daughter) *Sparkle Plenty Tracy Jr. (daughter) *Dick Tracy (father-in-law) *Tess Tracy (mother-in-law) *Bonnie Braids Tracy (sister-in-law) *Joseph Flintheart Tracy (brother-in-law) *Morin Plenty (grandfather) *Goodin Plenty (uncle) *Holden Plenty (uncle) *Kincaid "Can Head" Plenty (uncle) *Crystal (maternal cousin) *Johnny Plenty (cousin; deceased) *Little Boy Beard Plenty (cousin) *Purfume Plenty (cousin) *Dade Plenty (cousin) *Attitude Plenty (Brother)